M's Fic
by PerfectCosima
Summary: Blame Melissa. Dead Dog Fic #5 ft. Lawstein.


Danny threw her quiver and bow to the side, falling to her knees at the edge of the pit. "Carmilla!" she called out as she frantically peered down into the darkness. "Are you okay?" She paused a moment to wait for a reply, but none came. "Please tell me you're okay."

She let herself sit back on the ground, frozen in place as her mind moved at a million miles an hour. It was impossible. She couldn't be dead. A simple hunt like this couldn't be a tragedy. It just couldn't be true.

"Carmilla." Her voice was thick with unshed tears. "Please don't be dead. Please… just come back to me… I love you."

A soft laugh from behind her caused her to whirl around, startled to see a lithe figure emerging from the shadows of the trees.

"Glad to know how you feel, Goliath," Carmilla said, a mischievous twinkle in her eye.

"But you…" Danny just stared incredulously at the smirking vampire. "I thought…"

"You thought I took a nose dive into a hunting trap, yeah, I know. It takes more than that to kill me, and anyway; the deer went that wa-" Carmilla's sentence was cut off when she suddenly found herself on the ground after being bowled over by six feet and two inches of crying redhead. Any complaint that she had went unheard as Danny's mouth met hers, and in that moment she was reminded of how glad she was that she had no need to breath.

Of course Danny still did, and that fact caused a flash of disappointment as the tall girl rolled off of her, but it was only momentary as Carmilla recollected her previous words, ones that hadn't been directed toward her for years. "I love you too." She barely noticed that they were rolling off her tongue, they felt so familiar, so right, but then Danny froze, and she knew that she had really had finally said it, finally admitted her feelings.

"I mean, don't go spreading it around or anything, Lady Liberty," Carmilla immediately added as Danny started to grin. "You can't go around ruining my reputation as an uncaring asshole."

Danny just laughed, wriggling closer to Carmilla from where she was laying on the ground next to her. "You have my word," she promised, planting a kiss on her cheek. "As long as you promise not to go off and make me think you're dead again."

"Deal."

They laid there in silence for a few minutes before Carmilla became restless, sitting up and stretching. "You ready to get back out there, Big Red?" she asked, a grin on her face. "You psycho sisters might be a little pissed if we come back late and empty handed."

* * *

It was her last shot. She reached into her quiver and pulled out her ceremonial Summer Society arrow, notching it to the string. Carmilla had herded the deer toward her, and Danny could see it clearly in the moonlight.

She lifted her bow and aimed carefully, taking a deep breath and releasing the arrow with it. It flew straight, true, but a sudden rustling in the bushes behind the deer caused it to jump away, and the arrow to miss its target.

Danny grimaced and walked toward where she shot her arrow to recover it. The other arrows weren't big on her priority list, but this one was special, the arrowhead and shaft made entirely out of well polished wood. Normally she carried it for luck, but this time it seemed that the luck had failed her, and that she and Carm would have to return to camp with nothing to show for their efforts.

She never expected to see the sight that awaited her. Shock wasn't even accurate. If the pit had been pain, then this was agony, and she fell to her knees in front of the bleeding cat, tears resurging in her eyes.

"Carmilla…" she breathed, reaching out to stroke the soft black fur of her girlfriend's head, but

it was hair, and Carmilla was human, and it almost looked like she was breathing, but that wasn't right, this wasn't breathing, but her whole body trying so hard, endeavoring to keep it working, to keep whatever life it had left after centuries of being right on the edge between life and death. "Are you okay?"

"Better now that you're here." The sarcasm was a reflex, but it wasn't sarcasm, in the same way that it wasn't the truth.

Danny laughed, but it was hollow and meaningless. "Please tell me you're going to be okay," she repeated, her voice cracking at the end. "Right, dead girl? You're going to be okay, right? We're going to go home and we're going to be in love forever and you're never going to leave me and-"

There's a point during a fit of tears when your throat constricts and even your mumbling is cut off by sheer grief, and there's a point in your life when your eyes close and they never open again.

For Danielle Lawrence and Carmilla Karnstein, these things happen at the exact same moment.

A redheaded girl sits in the forest, blanketed with tears and ashes. A wooden arrow, unharmed and whole, shining in the moonlight.


End file.
